MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

Ducati has had a good run the past couple of seasons. The riders, teams, and manufacturers championship in 2022, then the riders and manufacturers championship in 2023, plus the top three places in the riders championship. At the end of the 2022 season, we wondered how Ducati could improve on the Desmosedici GP22, but they found a way with the GP23.

So after a remarkable 2023 season, we are faced with the same question again. How can Ducati do much better than last year? And does the GP23 even have any weaknesses that need to be addressed?

At the Campioni in Pista event, Ducati's launch of the MotoGP, WorldSBK, and this year, also MXGP efforts, I spoke to Davide Barana, Ducati Corse's Technical Director, to ask him about where Ducati goes from here. We discussed the areas Ducati is working on for 2024, the importance of aerodynamics, and how the Bologna factory feels about the fact that rival factories keep poaching their engineers.

But I started off asking about how you go about trying to improve a motorcycle that looks to be pretty close to perfect in every area already. Did Ducati have a particular weakness that needed working on? "The bike doesn't show a really clear point of weakness. But instead we think we have to improve in every single sector of the bike," Barana said.

This was a continuation of the process which has seen Ducati turn the notoriously recalcitrant Desmosedici into perhaps the most all-round MotoGP machine on the grid over a period of years. "I think also in the past we recognized we were suffering on turning, that was maybe one of the weaknesses, but it was not the only one."

If there is a secret, it is that Ducati didn't just try to fix the weaknesses of the bike, but also build on its strengths. "We worked a lot to recover in turning for sure, but we continue to work also in the points where we are considered at the top, in terms of engine," Barana pointed out. "Because the performance of the bike is a combination of different small factors. So you cannot just work on certain parts and concentrate on only one area because it's the weakest point. The secret, or our strategy is to evolve the bike in a 360 degree way."

That 360° approach meant that Ducati could turn its horsepower advantage into leading in acceleration. After all, if you can't put horsepower down out of corners, you might as well not have it. Getting drive out of corners was crucial, Barana acknowledged, and an area Ducati had worked hard on in several different ways.

"The acceleration of the bike is a combination of different factors. Some years ago it was mainly due to the engine performance, nowadays it's a combination of aerodynamic efficiency, so the ability to stop the wheelying of the bike, and also the introduction of the lowering system is another point that affects the acceleration performance of the bike. So you have to work on these three different items together." For Sepang, Ducati are hoping a new aerodynamic package will bring even stronger acceleration. "We worked a lot on that, and the new aero pack will also try to improve the performance in acceleration, but not only that."